The effort to control your chopsticks and sever mouthfuls while calculating optimal eye contactand tracking the conversation may well result in food on your hands, face, clothes, napkin and table section.

Next time you’re driving east through early morning traffic, observe the grey pedestrians scurrying to work.

If you’re lucky, the rising sun will shine straight through their ears, revealing their blood (and their humanity).

While you’re at it, keep an eye out for that composite pebble cladding used on office buildings in the late 1960s.

When the morning sun hits this material at a very acute angle, you can see every pebble picked out in high relief.

It’s almost like you’re looking at a river bed from which the water has suddenly receded.

See what you think of these photos.

These shots were taken in normal light. Just to give you an idea.

There sure is a lot going on here.

So much drama, in a simple bit of office building cladding. I feel sorry for the pebbles, mired in the cement.

Now the river bed suggests itself. Do you see?

How about now?

The light may also let you discern the rectangular concrete base slabs in which the pebbles are embedded.

Under normal conditions, these meld into one unbroken surface.

It’s likely that very few people will notice such a ‘spectacle‘, let alone appreciate it.

This matters not.

What matters is that you:

Can see it.

Do see it.

Get a kick out of it.

Wish to tell others about it.

That’s good enough.

PS. There’s a fascinating documentary about how an (Italian?) immigrant brought pebble cladding to Australia. I think it’s part of the Tales from a Suitcase series, but it could also be an architectural program. Let us know if you find it.